PROLOGUE After Paul had sailed from Asia, perhaps in June, landing in Macedonia and spending the summer and the most of the fall peregrinating the country and preaching not only in the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea, but doubtless innumerable other rural towns and villages throughout Northern Greece, somewhere up in that country and during that period he wrote this letter. Your postscript dates it at Philippi, as the first epistle. I believe this to be another mistake. Instead of both of them being written at Philippi, I know the first one was written at Ephesus, for the letter says so, and the second was written somewhere up there in Macedonia, and I know most probably from Berea, from the fact that Paul would be apt, after an absence of three years, first to go around among the churches throughout the whole country, and then avail himself of the rest while he dictates the letter to an amanuensis. As Philippi was the first city he reached, it is hardly probable he stopped there to write. As Berea is the last prominent city in his southbound journey, it is more probable that he halted there and wrote the letter, some time in August or September, sending it on before him in time for its perusal and appreciation before his arrival in December. What was the end in view of which he wrote this epistle? It is really a continuation of the castigatory, admonitory and advisory themes communicated in the first epistle, having already been encouraged by the report of Timothy, whom he had sent to preach to them and prevail on them to receive and obey his first letter. Still not satisfied with the extent of their information, and determined, if possible, to correct all the irregularities, heresies, abuses and departures from the precepts he had inculcated while with them, he writes again in order to perfect all these reformations and reclamations which they had already begun under the influence of the first letter, the preaching of Timothy and others. In this second letter he gives especial prominence to the contributions for the relief of the Jerusalem saints. While the close analogy between the two will enable us to make more rapid progress in the exegesis, this letter is replete with beautiful and bright sun-bursts along the line of spiritual truth, revelatory of Christian experience in the twofold aspect of regeneration for the sinner and sanctification for the believer; meanwhile the deeper doctrines of glorification receive some touches unsurpassed elsewhere in the Pauline epistles.

CHAPTER - 1. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and brother Timothy, to the church of God being at Corinth, with all the saints who are in Achaia .” Corinth was the great commercial, literary and idolatrous metropolis of Southern Greece, called Achaia. Its semi-tropical climate enriched not only the continent, but the innumerable islands all around with a vast variety of delicious and valuable fruits; meanwhile the agricultural resources were immense, and the mercantile facilities really put Corinth at the very front of the world, as the city stood on the isthmus between the Aegean Sea on the east, commanding the commerce of Asia, and the Ionian Sea on the west, commanding the commerce of Rome. 2. This is the salutation found in nearly all the apostolical letters, full of love and inspiration.

HE COMFORTS THEM 3-7. This paragraph is replete with the grandest hyperbole, in which he derives comfort from everything, adversity, prosperity, indiscriminately. “Knowing that as you are the participants of the sufferings, so also of the consolation,” i .e ., there is a blessing incident to every state of adversity which more than compensates the suffering, sorrow and loss.

HIS VERDICT IN FAVOR OF DEATH Verses 8-11. 8. “For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which occurred in Asia, that we were burthened above our power, so that we despaired even of life . 9. “But we had the answer of death in ourselves, in order that we may not have confidence in ourselves, but in God, who delivered us from so great a death and will deliver .” Exegetes are much at sea in reference to what this affliction was, as it is not specified. The presumption is that it was an exceedingly severe spell of sickness, which utterly prostrated and brought him to the very verge of death, when the last vestige of hope took its flight and God said to him, “Will you die or will you live?” He decided, “I will die,” thus taking it as his choice to depart from labor to rest. The English does not clearly bring out this fact, which is the great, salient point in the matter. It is believed that this is the terrible ordeal alluded to ( Corinthians 15:32), where he says that he fought with the wild beasts at Ephesus, symbolizing the awful disease that preyed on him by the figure of a wild beast, as the law did not allow them to cast a Roman citizen to a wild beast.

PAUL’S PROFESSION OF SANCTIFICATION Verses 12-14. 12. “For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and purity of God, not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God, were we in the world, and especially toward you . 13. “For I write not other things, but those things which you read and acknowledge: and I hope that you will acknowledge them to the end, because ye are our boasting as we are yours in the day of our Lord Jesus .”

This paragraph, like so many others, is grand and conclusive on both entire sanctification and the Coming of the Lord, the two grand hemispheres of the Pauline gospel, which roll before us through his writings in a constant glowing flame of inspired verity and beauty. It is to be regretted that the E.V., in v. 12, signally fails to bring out this clear and bold profession of the personal experience of entire sanctification by the apostle. The Greek word which I translated “holiness” is the very same word we find in Hebrews 12:10, where he says that we are partakers of His holiness, i .e ., the holiness of God. It is simply a form of the same word translated sanctification throughout the New Testament. Hence there is no evasion of the issue. Paul makes the profession there clear and straight in that word.

Where the E.V. has “godly sincerity,” I translated it “the purity of God,” which is literal; the Greek is eilikrinia from eilee , “a sun-beam” and krinoo , “judge.” It is a word whose force is too strong for any word in the English language to translate it. We can only reach it by circumlocution. It is taken from the ancient custom to hold up a substance before the sun for his rays to interpenetrate, in order to reveal impurities in it. Hence the import in the Scripture is that God proposes to make your heart so clean that when illuminated by the infallible Sun of Righteousness the Omniscient Eye will discover no impurities in it. Hence Paul made the boldest profession of entire sanctification I ever heard. The English word “sincerity” here occurring is much stronger than generally apprehended. It is from sine , “without,” and cera , “wax.” Hence it means “strained honey.” You get plenty of honey when born from above, but you have to pick it out from among the wax, dead bees and trash. Sanctification strains out everything else and leaves the pure, unadulterated deliciously sweet honey, which the Lord’s bees love so well, but the devil’s hornets do not appreciate. This passage is exceedingly valuable as a confirmation of Paul’s bold profession of entire sanctification.

THE SECOND BLESSING 1. “And with the same confidence I wished to come unto you hitherto, in order that you may have a second grace .” (See R.V.) This word charis occurs one hundred and twenty times in the New Testament, and only in this one instance is translated “benefit,” for which there is simply no apology, unless we conceive on the part of the translators an effort to defend their own unsanctified experiences. You must remember that John Wesley preached in that same church ten years before he was converted. It is hardly probable the translators were all clear in the experience of justification, while there is no probability that any of them enjoyed sanctification. Hence they have signally, in many instances, as you here see, failed to bring out in their translation the second work of grace, which in the original is clear as the meridian sun. This is obvious from the fact that we do not see clearly in the Bible experiences which we do not enjoy in our hearts, though we may have some vague apprehensions of them. There is a world within and a world without, corresponding either with other. I have heard many men possessing fine intelligence and scholarship preach powerfully against spiritual regeneration, laboring to convince the people that there was no such thing. They do the same in reference to sanctification, when personally ignorant of the experience. The doctrine of holiness so literally floods the Bible from beginning to end that it is impossible to translate it out or explain it away. Hence it is the great fundamental and overwhelming truth in every translation. But I find the Bible doctrine of holiness one hundred per cent. stronger in the version of the Holy Ghost Himself than in any human translation. We are assured that many of these Corinthians had gloriously entered Beulah land by a blessed second work of grace, before Paul bade them adieu for his Asiatic tour three years previously, yet in that great church of Jews and Gentiles there were dozens, scores, and perhaps hundreds, destitute of this experience and imperatively needing it. Hence he states to hem his anxiety to come unto them that they may receive a “second grace,” i .e ., the second work of grace.

YEA AND NAY, AND YEA Verses 16-24. 16. He traveled from Asia across the sea to Northern Greece, and then through Macedonia down into Achaia, spending the winter of A.D. 57-58 at Corinth, and writing the epistle to the Romans, leaving early in the spring for Jerusalem again, to visit the dear saints and bear to them the benefactions of the Gentile churches. 17. “Then wishing this, whether then did I use lightness a purpose or whatsoever things I wish, whether do I wish according to the flesh, in order that it may be with me yea, yea, and nay, nay . 18. “But God is faithful, because our word toward you is not yea and nay . 19. “For Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who is among you, having been preached by us, through me and Silas and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in Him it was yea . 20. “For so many promises of God in Him are yea: therefore indeed through Him it is amen unto God for glory through us . 21. “He that strengthened us along with you, and anointeth us, is God , 22. “Who also having sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts .” This paragraph is regarded as very obscure. I realize the light shining through it clear and cloudless, and feel that you will not only be enabled to receive it, but find a blessing in it. Paul’s original plan while over in Asia was to sail into Achaia first and then proceed on into Macedonia. This plan had been communicated to them by Timothy while Paul was still at Ephesus. He afterward changed his plan, in order to give them more time to repent, wheel into line, and straighten up all their irregularities before his arrival, lest he find it necessary severely to administer the disciplinary rod. This change of plan on the part of Paul should be profitable to you and me, illustrating the difference between the human and the Divine leadership. Paul had been preaching in Asia three years, finally getting around to Europe again. I have appointments out now for the next three years. That is a human program, which is innocent within itself, but final in no case, because it is liable to be changed anywhere and everywhere by the Divine leadership, which is not anticipatory at long range like human plans, but is in the present tense. Hence, responding to calls in all parts of the continent, and giving dates far out in the future, I constantly insert “D . V .,” which means “God willing,” giving me all needed latitude and longitude to go anywhere in this world or up to Heaven, instead of fulfilling the list of appointments. Some of the people at Corinth were charging Paul with instability because he changed his program and went to Macedonia first. Of course, God knew all the time that He was going to lead him into Macedonia first and from there down into Achaia; but we see that Paul, like the rest of us, had a human program which was every day and hour liable to be interrupted by the Divine leadership, bringing to him no disappointment whatever, because his will was lost in God, and, while we do not feel free to ignore the adumbrations of our future pilgrimage, yet we recognize the perpetual Divine leadership in the present tense, Jesus walking by my side and leading me with His hand. Here Paul castigates the Corinthians for imputing to him human motives involving personal instability. Hence he assures them that it is not with him “yea and nay,” like the worldly people who talk about “luck” and “failure,” and “good luck” and “bad luck.” That is the language of the card-table and the horserace. So he corrects it by referring to our Savior, with whom it was not “yea and nay,” but in Him all things are “yea.” What is the meaning of that? Worldly people are tossed amid ambiguities, and have haphazardous adventures all the time. Everything with them is a matter of “luck” and “failure,” “success” and “disappointment.” With God’s holy people, who are lost in His will, there is no such a thing as “bad luck,” “failure” or “disappointment”.

Because “all things work together for good to them who love God, who are the elect according to His purpose” ( Romans 8:29).

Since “my will is the will of my God,” and if I am true to Him I know that His will is carried out in my behalf all the time, therefore there is no such a thing as disappointment, because the Lord’s will is constantly verified if I am true and obedient. Hence everything is “good luck” to me. It is all “yea,” and there is no “nay” about it. My whole life is made up of positives and no negatives; victories and no defeats. The blessed indwelling Holy Spirit is to us the Earnest, i .e ., the prelibation, of Heaven. 23. “I call God to witness to my soul that sparing you I came not into Corinth .” If he had come at the time they were looking for him, he would have been under the necessity of enforcing severe discipline and turning a lot of them out of the church. As it was he had judiciously delayed, at the same time sending to them these powerful letters in which all the heresies, abuses, disorders and irregularities were corrected, and sending to them first Timothy and then Silas to preach to them and lead them into repentance necessary to satisfy the demands of God’s Word. The whole scheme worked out in perfect harmony, so that when he came they had nothing to do but meet him with a shout, and sit down and enjoy his powerful preaching. 24. “Not that we domineer over your faith, but we are fellow-partakers of your joy: for by faith you stand .” Paul was far from the attitude of an ecclesiastical autocrat, demanding of them loyalty and obedience to a lot of ecclesiastical institutions. There was nothing of that kind. All he asked of them was to be true to God, taking His precious Word as their only authority, and he was ready to shout with them. Faith is the great fundamental grace underlying all others, and holding up the superstructure of Christian character. Yet faith must have standing ground, which is in case of the sinner a radical and complete repentance and in case of the Christian a thorough and unequivocal consecration.

CHAPTER - HE RESOLVES NOT TO COME TO THEM IN SORROW Verses 1-13.

Paul most sagaciously and successfully maneuvers this whole matter. It would have been a terrible ordeal to him, who had spent eighteen months with them and seen them all born from above, and rejoiced exultantly with his spiritual children, to come among them with the castigatory rod, holding church trials and turning out a big lot of them. So he determines from the start, and arriving at Ephesus from his great Eastern tour, and there bearing all about these irregularities, heresies and disorders, he decides that he will wheel them into line by firing on them at long range. 4. “For out of much grief and anguish of heart I wrote unto you through many tears, not that you may be grieved, but that you may know the Divine love I have toward you exceedingly .” While he had met every issue fairly and squarely, withholding not an iota or flickering, he had baptized his letters with his tears. Timothy and Titus, his noble preachers, had been signally blessed of God in their work among them, corroborating the Pauline epistles by their preaching and bringing about a genuine repentance and radical reform. 5. “But if anyone has grieved you all in part, he did not grieve me but in part, that I may not burthen you. 6. “This punishment from the many is sufficient for such an one . 7. “So, on the contrary, you should rather bless and exhort him, lest he may be swallowed up with excessive grief . 8. “Therefore, I exhort you to stir up your Divine love toward him .” This is that notorious incestuous man who had his father’s wife (the old man still living, ch. 7:12), though Paul had assured them that this man should be turned over to Satan, i .e ., expelled from the church, in case that he did not take heed. But, to the infinite gratitude of Paul, he had not only reformed and made everything right as far as possible, but he was about to grieve himself to death, and the whole church was down in mourning with him and praying for him, not a single one vindicating him, but condemning him, and crying to God to have mercy on him and them. When Titus arrives and tells Paul about the genuine, radical and excessive repentance, and the man even about to grieve himself to death, Paul tells them here that it is enough, and exhorts them to turn the tide and labor to comfort him, all stirring up their Divine love in his behalf, exhorting and blessing him, lest he die of grief. 9. “For unto this indeed I wrote, in order that I may know your approval, if you are obedient in all things .” He had the blessed consolation of realizing that they were obedient in all things. Instead of dividing up into factions, as is customary in case of church discipline, they unanimously accepted the situation and came down in sackcloth and ashes, those who had sinned crying for mercy, and the balance crying along with them that the sin had occurred among them. 10-11. “But in whatsoever you rejoice as to anything, I do also, for indeed I have rejoiced in this, if I have rejoiced in anything, for your sakes in the face of Christ, in order that we may not be gobbled up by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices .” If they had broken into divisions over the Pauline discipline, Satan would have made great capital out of it. But as it was, he was utterly defeated and the victory was complete. 12-13. “Having come into Troas unto the gospel of Christ, indeed a door being opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother, but bidding them adieu I departed into Macedonia .”

Troas is over in Asia, the capital of Mysia, the successor of old Troy of Homeric notoriety. Titus was to meet Paul there, and give him the news from Corinth, whither Paul had sent him to preach and to do his utmost to obey his epistles and make everything right. On arrival, he does not find him. Such is his anxiety to hear from Corinth that he does not delay, but hastens away over the sea to Macedonia, where he meets Titus bringing the glorious news of his great revival at Corinth, so ravishing to the longing heart of their spiritual father.

THE GOSPEL OMINOUS OF DOOM 14. “Thanks be unto God, who causeth us to triumph in Christ, manifesting the odor of the knowledge of Himself through us in every place .” The apostles are everywhere the heralds of victory in Christ, who causes them to triumph over all of their spiritual foes, their message of truth, testimony of personal Salvation, songs of joy and shouts of victory filling the very atmosphere with the fragrant odors of the knowledge of Christ; i .e ., everything they say and do is constantly revelatory of the knowledge of Christ. 15. “Because we are a sweet savor to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing .” So long as we are in this world we are not saved in a final sense, but only being saved, i .e ., in process of salvation, ripening for Heaven, justification being primary salvation, sanctification full salvation and glorification final salvation. Meanwhile the wicked are not yet damned, but only condemned, with an opportunity to have the condemnatory sentence rescinded. There is no final issue in either case till we pass out of this probation. The true ministers are a sweet savor to God, because they so proclaim the whole counsel of God as to turn the full responsibility over to the hearers, thus vindicating the Divine justice and magnifying sovereign mercy, whether in the case of salvation or perdition. 16. “To the latter an odor from death unto death, and to the former an odor of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things ?” In the case of the wicked, we are an odor from the spiritual death which now locks them tight unto the eternal death which awaits them. In the case of the righteous, we are an odor from the glorious spiritual life they now enjoy, to the ineffable joys of the eternal life to which they fast hasten, the present state in either case being significantly ominous of the momentous future. No wonder he indulges in the interjection, “Who is equal to these things ?” Tremendous are the issues and immeasurable the responsibilities. 17. “For we are not as many, who are in the habit of adulterating the Word of God .” What an awful responsibility! and yet how many are guilty of bending the Word to suit the creed or the congregation. God’s Word is His voice, replete with His awful majesty. In the first place, it is an awful pity a creed was ever made. This is the reason why they corrupt the Word to suit the creed. No one should assume the awful responsibility of handling God’s Word till he is dead to creeds, opinions, and everything but God. “But as from purity, but as from God, we speak before God in Christ.” The “sincerity” in E.V. is eilikrineias , from eilee , a “sunbeam,” and krinoo , judge. Hence it means “judged in a sunbeam,, i .e ., God proposes to make your heart so pure that when illuminated by the infallible Sun of Righteousness, His own omniscient eye can see no impurity in it. We are to preach in the constant realization that we are standing in the presence of God.

CHAPTER - ALL CHRISTIANS ARE GOD’S LETTERS 1-3. This wicked world will never read the Bible. When they read it, they never can understand it, unless they become penitent and pray till the Holy Spirit opens their understanding and reveals it to them. Hence none of the books constituting the Bible are addressed to sinners. Jesus says: “Ye are the light of the world.” Here Paul tells us that we are “letters written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” Hence the silly folly of those heretics who deny the contact of the Holy Spirit with the human spirit. Pursuant to this illustration they would have to write a letter with ink and never permit it to come in contact with the paper, as the contact of Spirit with spirit is as real as that of the paper and ink when you write the letter.

Paul recognizes the fact that they also had a copy of their converts in their hearts. These letters are the hope of the world, as the wicked will read us, though they will not read the Bible. What a grand conception! Every saint is the letter of Christ for all the world to read. O, how Satan has strewn the world with counterfeit letters, which the people read and believe and go down to Hell by millions.

THE LETTER KILLETH AND THE SPIRIT MAKETH ALIVE 5. “We are not able to think anything from ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God .” Unless the Holy Spirit sanctify and illuminate the intellect we are incompetent to even think God-like thoughts. No wonder the Savior forbade his own apostles to go out preaching till they were filled with the Holy Ghost, who is really the only preacher in all the world, others only being competent to preach through His immediate agency and presence. 6. “Who also empowered us ministers of the new covenant .” Christ is Mediator of the new covenant and Moses of the old, the latter being rudimentary and the former Christian perfection. Hence the people who remain in spiritual infancy, i .e ., stop with justification, are spindled and dwarfed in the dispensation of Moses, three thousand years behind the age. “Not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive.” The man who depends on the simple Word for salvation without the Spirit, is like the murderer who employs a lawyer to search the statute-book to find his pardon. Nothing will be found there but his condemnation. The Bible says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Sad to say, the multitude of preachers in Christendom this day are ministers of the Word without the Spirit, and simply augmenting the condemnation and expediting the damnation of their people, unless they receive the Spirit, which is not very probable unless the preachers lead the way. The people swept through the churches down to Hell meet a more awful doom than the heathens, because they sin against light and knowledge. This dead-letter ministry has girdled the globe with the form without the power, from which God says, “Turn away.” No man can be a “minister of the Spirit” unless he has the Spirit. All he can do is to condemn you, sending mourning to the Spirit. Good Lord, help us to be ministers of the Spirit, and not simply of the letter. Satan knows that the Word without the Spirit will only expedite and augment damnation. Hence he sends out so many to preach who are strangers to the Holy Ghost. If we would be the ministers of the Spirit, we must receive Him into our hearts and let Him fill us and use us. We must recognize Him as the Leader of our meetings. This will knock out all human form and ceremony, and turn over the singing, praying, preaching and testifying to the Holy Ghost. Besides all this, we must be consciously possessed by the Holy Ghost. Will you be a minister of the Holy Ghost?

They are scarce, and at a high premium in Heaven. We live amid awful issues. Every preacher nowadays is forced to decide between human authority and influence and the Holy Ghost. I am glad I passed this ordeal thirty years ago. Many are dying hard at that point now. Will you be a minister of the dead letter or the Holy Ghost?

THE VAIL OF MOSES Verses 7-16.

Moses was the mediator of the old covenant of works, and hence a representative of Christ, who had not yet come in the flesh, and though on earth from the beginning of the mediatorial kingdom, yet never visible to human senses till after He was born in Bethlehem. However, He was real and manifest to human spirits in the days of the patriarchs, just as the children of Israel realized the personal presence of Moses when he covered his face with a vail, though they could not see his face. The vail was pertinent for the mediator while excarnate, and as Moses represented Christ before incarnation, when yet invisible, he must also be invisible, covering his face with a vail as his body was covered with his mantle, so that his entire person was in a sense invisible. And yet how exceedingly real to all Israel was the personal presence of Moses, even though covered from the contact of their senses. Hence we must not conclude that Jehovah (for this was the Old Testament name of Christ) was not manifested to the patriarchs. He was intensely real to them, as Moses was to Israel, even though he had a vail upon his face. This symbolism vividly represents the justified and sanctified experiences contrastively, while in both we realize the presence of our blessed Mediator. In the former, which is normal to the Mosaic dispensation, we are delighted with His presence, but conscious that there is an intervening vail somewhere, like the worshiper in the outer court of the temple separated from the effulgent glory of the Shekinah by the intervening vail. Yet he is assured that Jehovah in His glory is very nigh. He is no pagan, groping amid the mummeries of heathen priests, talking to dead gods who never give them an intelligent answer. While he is delighted with the privilege of worshipping Jehovah in his sanctuary, he longs to pass beyond that veil, and stand amid the clear effulgence of the glorious Shekinah, and meet Jehovah face to face. In the new dispensation the priesthood is transferred to the membership ( 1 Peter 2), the justified experience constituting you a priest and permitting you to offer sacrifices in the sanctuary; while sanctification rends the vail from top to bottom, so you have nothing to do but push it aside by the hand of faith, walk in, enjoy the worship of the cherubim, and abide amid the unutterable splendors of the Shekinah, flooded with the delectable realization of Jehovah’s presence.

Hence, in this beautiful symbolism of Moses with a vail on his face, so that the children of Israel can not immediately behold his person and see him face to face, yet they are indubitably conscious of his presence. Now, do not forget that Moses, in his mediatorship, does not represent himself, but Christ; hence we see that the justified experience reveals Jesus to the senses beyond the possibility of doubt, yet there is a vail intervening But this vail is taken away in sanctification, which is normal to the new dispensation. 7. “And if the ministry of death, having been engraven in writing in the stones, was in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look upon the face of Moses on account of the glory of his countenance, which is transitory , 8. “How much more shall the ministry of the Spirit be in glory ?” Why is the ministry of the old covenant, i .e ., justification, called the “ministry of death”? Because it means the death of the sinner, i .e ., old Adam, who in justification is arrested and bound as a prisoner awaiting execution. Here Paul calls this ministry of death “transitory.” Why? Because it does not take long to kill a man. This ministry arrests the man of sin, and holds him for execution at the hands of the man of grace. Hence this ministry of death is superseded by the ministry of the Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Ghost slays Adam the first, thus putting an end to the ministry of death. 9. “For if the ministry in condemnation was in glory, how much more shall the ministry of right abound in glory . 10. “For that which was glorious became not glorious in this respect on account of the surpassing glory . 11. “For if the transitory is through glory, how much more is that which abides in glory ?” The mediatorship of Moses was in its very nature transitory, as he was destined to be superseded by Christ, who is to abide forever. Yet you must not lose sight of the Antitype in the contemplation of any of these types, as that is the point where idolatry comes in and they proceed to the worship of types and symbols; but you must bear in mind that Christ was as real in the Old Testament as in the New, otherwise none could have been saved, for Moses had no more power to save a soul than I have, and God out of Christ is a consuming fire. John the Baptist said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight” ( Matthew 3:3).

John here means Christ, and if you will read his quotation from Isaiah, you will find he says “Jehovah.” Hence the Christ of John is the “Jehovah” of Isaiah. Paul says, “Some of them tempted Christ and were destroyed by serpents” ( 1 Corinthians 10:19).

Hence you see the Christ of Paul is the Jehovah of Moses. By these two unimpeachable witnesses you see I prove the identity of Christ and Jehovah. Therefore, throughout the Old Testament, Jehovah means none other than the excarnate Christ. So they all had Christ with them, omnipotent to save from the days of Abel till the last trumpet sounds. Now you see in these Scriptures Paul calls this the ministry of condemnation, which is true throughout the gospel of justification, normal to the ministry of Moses, because justification condemns old Adam to die. The sheriff has a writ of prosecution against your house. You have the murderer on hand, taking care of him and feeding him. The only way you can save your own neck is to turn over that murderer to the sheriff for execution under the law, which says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Hence you are never justified till you actually assign old Adam’s death warrant. As here it says that the Mosaic dispensation was transitory, so your justification is really a transitory state, destined soon to wind up with the execution of Adam the first. These Scriptures clearly refute the possible conception of settlement and permanency in the justified experience, which in its very nature is transitory. Now Paul says that this ministry of condemnation (i .e ., the condemnation of the sin-principle to execution) is glorious, but that glory is in its very nature transitory, and destined to wind up with the ministry of the Spirit, who supersedes Moses, the law-giver, and hence the representative of the law. But you must remember that the law can do nothing but define the offense and condemn the criminal. The law is a light revealing sin. A dozen rattlesnakes may be in this room unseen by the inmates because there is no light. When the light comes it reveals the venomous monsters, but has no power to kill a single one of them. So Moses the law-giver has no power to slay Adam the first. There is glory in his ministry of condemnation, because, pursuant to truth and righteousness, it condemns the man of sin to die. This ministry n its very nature is transitory, because it is verified and passes away when the criminal is executed. Hence the glory of justification consists in arresting the man of sin and holding him a prisoner for execution and turning him over into the hands of the Executive, who is none other than the Holy Ghost, the Omnipotent Spirit of Christ. Now when Adam the first is turned over to the Holy Ghost for execution, we pass triumphantly into the ministry of the Spirit. Why do I say triumphantly? Because the vexed problem is now gone out of our hands. The Omnipotent Spirit takes charge of our old enemy, who has given us all the trouble we ever had. Truly our victory has come.

We need not trouble ourselves about what He has done with him. We know that He will never let him trouble us any more. As the law under Moses has already condemned him to die, and the Holy Ghost, the Executive of the law, has taken him into hand, of course there is nothing left for us to do but to reckon him dead ( Romans 6:11), and raise the shout of triumph. Since this is no transitory affair, victory has come, and come to stay. Well does Paul here say that the transcendent glory normal to the ministry of the Spirit, which comes to abide, actually eclipses all the glory normal to the ministry of condemnation, which was destined to be transitory, passing away with the execution of Adam the first and superseded by the transcendent glory normal to the ministry of the Spirit, who not only executes Adam the first ( Romans 6:6), but abides forever, filling the soul and life with glory ineffable. Hence we see the egregious folly on the part of anyone to abide in the justified state. He is committing the awful blunder of the Jews who held on to Moses, refusing to let him go into eclipse when Christ came. Moses was all right in his dispensation, but utterly effete and unsatisfactory after the expiration of his dispensation. The present Holiness Movement is destined to play a conspicuous part in the Judgment Day.

When the Jews rejected Christ they plunged headlong into darkness, and have been sinking deeper into infidelity and atheism ever since. The same was true when the Roman Catholic Church rejected the light of the Lutheran Reformation. Before that day there were many bright lights and celebrated saints adorning her ranks, such as Augustine, Bernard, and a host of others. God raised up. Luther and his compeers to lead them into brighter light and better experiences. They rejected them with contempt, and have been sinking into blacker darkness, deeper debauchery and were terrible diabolism ever since. The same is true of the Episcopal Church ever since she rejected the light God gave her in the Wesleyan Holiness Movement.

The present movement is not local, like that of Luther in Germany, Knox in Scotland and Wesley in England, but it is moving with the tread of a giant through every nation under Heaven, as her fire-baptized missionaries are now penetrating the hitherto unexplored regions of Hoonan, Thibet, in Eastern Asia, and the Soudan and Congo regions of Central Africa, as well as South America, the islands of the sea and all other nations, girdling the globe with salvation and holiness to the Lord. The saddest scene on which the angels look down is the rejection of the Holiness gospel by the Protestant churches, thus marking a notable epoch in their history, destined to astonish millions when we all stand before the great white throne. They have no idea of giving up their justification, yet they are everywhere doing this very thing, from the simple fact that it is utterly impossible to hold it after they reject sanctification. You have turned over the man of sin to the civil authorities for execution. You still have him on hand, a prisoner on your premises. The day of hanging has arrived and the sheriff comes after him. If you do not surrender him up to execution your loyalty is at once suspected, impeached, and ere long forfeited. You are like the Jews who held on to Moses after Christ came. God is as real in the church of the world today as when He flamed in the bush before Moses in the wilderness. I most obviously and unmistakably see to my sorrow the sad retreat of all the Protestant churches back into darkness and condemnation.

It is because they reject sanctification. 13. “And not as Moses put a vail on his face, so that the sons of Israel could not see to the end of the transitory .” While in the justified experience this vail is on our face, so we do not see the glorious end of this transitory experience, when the man of sin is executed and we are sanctified wholly. 14. “But their minds were darkened .” The Jews could not clearly apprehend Christ till He came incarnate; hitherto their conceptions were more or less shadowy and vague. “For unto this day this same vail remains in the reading of the Old Testament, not taken away because it is done away in Christ.” We have this day thousands of witnesses to this fact. I preached fifteen years in the dispensation of Moses with that vail on my face, while reading my Bible so that I enjoyed no distinct vision, but a vague panorama like the fugitive scenes of a magic lantern moved before my eyes. Thirty years ago, when the Holy Ghost revealed Jesus to my spirit sitting on the throne of my heart, crowned and sceptered, King of kings and Lord of lords, ruling within and without and making my life a constant sunshine, what a light and a glory rolled over the inspired pages! Before that day I had never given a Bible reading, was utterly incompetent to do it. Oh, how wonderfully the blessed Holy Spirit has revealed to my happy soul His precious Word! The reason you find none but the Holiness people making any progress in Bible study is here solved, as they alone behold the living Word in clear and cloudless light, all justified people reading it with a vail over their faces, and the wicked neglecting it altogether. 15. “But unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart, but when he may turn to the Lord the vail is taken away — 17. “But the Lord is a Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty .” “Lord” here means “Christ,” the Second Person of the Trinity, and “the Spirit of the Lord” means “the Holy Ghost.” And since the Holy Ghost has been sent into the world as a Revelation of the spiritual Christ — who is none other than the Hero of Mt. Calvary; who has conquered sin, death and Hell, and “brought life and immortality to light,” gloriously delivering His people from all of their enemies and crowning them with the diadem of perfect freedom — the Holy Ghost is here among us to conduct all of our meetings, His constant work being the revelation and the glorification of Christ. The poorest beggar becomes a millionaire when it is all given to him by a rich friend. Then he has perfect liberty in financial and temporal matters. How sad to see the spiritual bondage in the churches, the preacher afraid of his members and official board, and they all afraid of one another and the preacher, and afraid of other churches, and afraid of the worldly people; so there is no liberty, they are all in bondage. What a pity they will not all let the Holy Ghost come in and introduce King Jesus, who breaks every chain, sunders every fetter, and makes them all free as angels!

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS 18. “But we all with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory unto glory, as by the Lord the Spirit .” This is a beautiful, vivid and glorious description of the experience enjoyed by people after they have been truly sanctified. This verse is inapplicable to unsanctified Christians, from the fact that their faces are already unveiled, which is not peculiar to the justified experience normal to Moses, who had the vail on his face. Again, we see that the transfiguration here mentioned is not from carnality to the glory of holiness, as in the case of people entering the sanctified experience, but from “glory to glory,” i .e ., from the glory of holiness to the glory of transfiguration.

The theme of discourse is the reading of God’s Word, under the Mosaic dispensation with a vail over your face, but now that the vail is taken away in Christ, we read the same Word with face unveiled. Hence the Bible is God’s looking-glass, in which we see ourselves mirrored and reflected back. The reason why the wicked hate the Bible is because it shows them their own faces polluted by devils and coiled about with rattlesnakes. The reason why unsanctified Christians do not take much interest in the Bible is because it reveals to them their own faces awfully dirty, ugly and filthy, and it is murderous to all their pride to behold the sight, while sanctified people are unutterably surprised and delighted to see their faces so bright, clean and beautiful that they never get tired looking at them. But beauty hath a charm insatiable, and, while astounded beyond measure as we contemplate the beauty of holiness reflected in our own features from the looking-glass of God’s Word, though we see all the wounds and lacerations of leprosy and small-pox are gloriously healed, odoriferous with Heavenly fragrance and beautiful as the roses of Sharon, yet the old scars are still there, and we long for their final obliteration. Where the E.V. has “transformed” the better reading is “transfigured.” While sanctification is the perfection of grace, the transfiguration is the perfection of glory, the grand ultimatum in the restitutionary economy, actually conferring homogeneity to the Heavenly state, our destination, whither we are bound and to which we are running night and day, like the Grecian racers in the Olympic stadium. Now, remember that the transfiguration glory is really the constant and supreme desideratum of every truly sanctified soul; and as sanctification, though suddenly entered, is gradually approximated, so glorification, though instantaneously wrought upon the soul by the Holy Ghost the very moment of its translation out of the body, yet it is gradually approached during the entire period of the sanctified life. We all desire supremely a part in the rapture of the saints when the Lord comes after His Bride. As we are constantly on the lookout for His appearing, of course we are not expecting to die, but to see our coming King and meet Him in the clouds. In that case, we must be transfigured, body, mind and spirit. Hence there is a prominent sense in which that transfiguration is going on. John Wesley taught a gradual sanctification, antecedent to the instantaneous experience and a necessary preparation for its reception. In a similar manner there is a gradual transfiguration, in which we are weaned from earth and ripened for Heaven. In this gradual transfiguration, great physical changes, as well as intellectual and spiritual, transpire, making us less physical, gross and earthly, and more spiritual, intellectual, ethereal and Heavenly in our constitution and habitude, thus, in a mysterious and indefinable way, preparing us for the wonderful change out of materiality into pure spirituality, when these bodies shall cease to be the tenement of the animal life and intellect, but become the glorified house for our glorified spirit to occupy forever. While looking into this mirror, i .e ., God’s wonderful Word, we see our own being reflected back as you see your person when you stand before the looking-glass. What a significant fact! the Heaven bound pilgrim, as the years go by, actually sees himself as he reads his Bible, clearly showing up changes, revolutions and transfigurations, effecting obvious elimination’s of the earthy, and taking on discernible accessions of the Heavenly, and thus more and more approximating the beauty, purity and glory of our blessed Paragon, till the moment of final victory arrives, and, responsive to the call of the Heavenly Bridegroom, this mortal will put on immortality, and fly away to meet Him in the skies.

Again, in case that He shall call me to evacuate this tenement to go and meet Him, it is equally pertinent that I should be ripe for translation, so that I will enjoy a part in the first resurrection and a place in the glorified Bridehood of my Lord. I find that this is all done by “the Lord the Spirit,” a better translation than “the Spirit of the Lord,” as in E.V.; setting forth the fact that the Holy Ghost, who is identical with the Lord Himself, i .e ., the spiritual Christ to whom we are wedded in sanctification, and who abides here ( Matthew 28:20) to the end of the age, i .e ., the present age, which will end when the millennium is ushered in. Meanwhile He here abides, is wedded to us in sanctification, and prepares us — soul, body and mind — in the fullness of our redeemed humanity to be wedded to Him in the fullness of His glorified humanity, when we shall gather in the marriage supper of the Lamb. Hence the Holy Ghost, who is none other than the Spirit of our Savior, is the Omnipotent Agent here with us, felicitously transfiguring us through His Word, and getting us ready for glorification, whether through translation or resurrection.

CHAPTER - LEVITICAL VERSUS HOLY GHOST MINISTRY 1. “Therefore, having this ministry ,” i .e ., the wonderful and responsible ministry of the Holy Ghost, in contradistinction to the Levitical ministry under Moses, “as we obtained mercy, we faint not, 2. “But we lay aside the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but through the manifestation of the truth presenting ourselves to every conscience of men before God .” As Christ had not come and Moses was only a type, it was pertinent that the Mosaic ministry should preach the gospel through types and symbols.

Hence the bloody sacrifices symbolizing the work of Christ, and the watery catharisms representing the work of the Holy Ghost, constant and exceedingly operose during the Mosaic dispensation. The gospel ministry under the Holy Ghost dispensation is entirely different, being a pure spirituality, whose end is the revelation of Christ to the human spirit, i .e ., to the sinner as a Savior and to the Christian as a Sanctifier. This is done by faithfully preaching the Word, and not handling it deceitfully in craftiness.

Priestcraft is one of the devil’s most successful inventions. It is the quintessence of handling the Word deceitfully, i .e ., bending it about to suit the creed, the congregation, the times and circumstances. The devil’s preachers are wonderfully shrewd and accommodating. They will twist the Scripture around to suit everybody and everything except holiness to the Lord. It is so deplorable to see the religious world today groping along in the dispensation of Moses, wasting the Lord’s money in building costly church edifices, pouring out thousands for mere show, and even ruining the acoustic facilities of the building. Then the services are all about as rigidly ritualized as in the days of the Levitical priesthood. I do believe that in many instances the worship in the Jewish synagogue was more simple and spiritual than in the metropolitan churches of the present day, where it is ritualized to death. It is so alarming to see the millions of Christendom today groping along in the dispensation of Moses, reading the Bible with the veil over their faces, pulled and hauled about by the devices of priestcraft, often “handling the Word of the Lord deceitfully,” making the Bible the mere tool of their caprices. It is a sine qua non of the Holy Ghost ministry to let the blessed Spirit have His way in everything; read and preach the Word just as it is, fearlessly of men and devils, and recognize the Holy Ghost in His personal presence, not only preaching to them His own Word, but conducting the service in song, prayer, testimony, exhortation and sermon. 3. “If our gospel is hidden, it is hidden among those who are being lost .”

All the wicked are now in a perishing condition, going every moment down to Hell, opportunities and privileges incessantly taking their flight into the vast eternity. All this is because the gospel is being hidden to them, and they are living as if they had no Savior. 4. “In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those that believe not, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ may not shine on them .” Here we find the problem solved, and the reason why people are going into Hell by millions is because they do not see Hell open and coming to meet them, and black devils dragging them into the burning pit. The reason why they see none of these things is because the devil has blinded them through unbelief. Faith is the medium through which all light enters the mind. One of the darkest omens of the age is the rapid rush of all religious denominations into the infidelity of No-Hellism. This subtle demon has already put a padlock on the mouths of about ninety-nine preachers out of every hundred. If you would keep people out of Hell, you must convince them there is one, and that they are going to it. You can not convince them without telling them so. This part of the gospel constitutes the grand break-water against the wild rush of people into Hell. So soon as they wake up to the fact that the Bible Hell is an awful reality, and they are rushing into it at race-horse speed, they will begin to cry out: “What must I do to be saved?” Then the time comes to preach the gospel of grace, get them saved and sanctified, and put them in the school of Christ to feed on His precious Word and glorify Him in the salvation of others. This explains the reason why the fear of God is not in the popular churches. People go there with the pomp and hilarity of the theater. The true readiness “the god of this age,” not as E.V., “this world.” When Satan captured Eden, the ages of his dark and gloomy reign set in. “One day with God is a thousand years” ( 2 Peter 3:8).

The sixth one-thousand year days of Satan’s dreary week of darkness, toil, bloodshed and damnation are almost at an end, when he is to be arrested like a common criminal and taken out of the world ( Revelation 20) and locked up in Hell. So, while he is the god of this age, ruling kings, princes, potentates and ecclesiastical hierarchies, it is a happy reflection that he is not the god of this world, but that Jesus has redeemed it by His blood and is going to utterly rescue it from Satan’s black tread, glorify it and add it back to Heaven, where it first swung out from the creative fiat amid the shouts of angels and archangels. During the present age of darkness, sin and misery, as we see here, the devil is god on the earth, ruling its rulers in State and Church, and tumbling all into Hell as fast as possible. The word for “church” in the Scriptures, ecclesia , from ek , “out,” and kaleo , “call,” simply means the people who have come out of this wicked world, responsive to the call of the Holy Ghost. In every case in all by-gone ages, when the good ones go to Heaven, the devil has supplied their places with his counterfeits from the world, thus maneuvering soon to capture the church and fill it up with the world. Hence we have this day the whole world crowded with the devil’s churches, eight hundred millions being pagans, two hundred millions Mohammedans, two hundred and fifty millions Roman Catholics, a hundred millions Greek Catholics, and among the hundred millions of Protestants he certainly has the lion’s portion. God, in His great mercy, ever and anon calls His people to come out of the world. If He did not call them out of the worldly churches, the devil would get them. The very fact that a church is worldly is demonstrative proof that the devil has it; because he is the god of this age, i .e ., the god who rules the world during the present age of darkness and sin. So fast as the devil can keep the people from believing the Bible, he blinds them through their own unbelief, thus utterly disqualifying them to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 5. “For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves the servants for Jesus’ sake .” The true gospel preacher has but one theme, and that is Christ the Lord. Christ means God’s Anointed One, who redeemed the world by His blood, and is the name of our Savior in His mediatorial capacity. Lord means a ruler of this world, and has always been applied to the temporal rulers of the earth Hence in its application to our Savior, it signifies His regal office and character. Jesus is His birth-name and means “Savior”; Christ, Redeemer; and Lord, “King.” Hence we are to preach all of these great cardinal truths appertaining to the Christhood everywhere we go. The whole Bible is but the biography of Christ; the Old Testament that of Christ concealed, the New Testament that of Christ revealed. We are to preach faithfully the historic Christ in